|
Welcome
to Maryland American
History and Genealogy Project
we are in the process of
building new State and County pages for the states where
the coordinator has moved on to other projects. Garrett County is looking for a new Coordinator would you
be interested? If so please contact
Webmaster.
Many of the present coordinators are always willing to give help and
suggestions to newcomers, you can learn, I did and that was after 60!!
Read our
About Page and see what our requirements are,
pretty easy!
Court House at Oakland
Garrett, the youngest of the counties of Maryland, was
carved out of territory belonging to Allegany County, in
1872. Its first election for county officers was held
January 7, 1873. John W. Garrett, then president of the
Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, for whom the county was
named, was instrumental in its establishment. In area
Garrett is the largest county in the State, 660 square
miles. It is largely mountainous, lying in the great
plateau of the Alleghanies, and contains much uncleared
land. It has rich deposits of iron ore, fire clay, and
other minerals, especially coal; but the chief
industries are farming, stock raising, and lumbering,
Oakland, its county seat, is 2,800 feet above sea level,
and is noted as a summer resort. Mountain Lake Park,
widely known for its Chautauqua and camp-meeting, and
Deer Park are also in Garrett. The people of the county
are purely American, there being few residents of
foreign birth, and only a half-hundred Negroes.
The rivers and streams of the county abound in game
fish, bass and trout and deer, pheasants, wild turkeys,
etc., make it the same sportsmen's paradise it was in
the days of Meshach Browning, hunter and author.
Occasionally, in the mountain fastnesses, a bear is
seen. Its deer shooting has long attracted hunters from
all over the country, and the glades and uplands are
yearly alive with pheasants and wild turkeys.
Wheat, potatoes, corn, buckwheat, and hay, are leading
Garrett crops. The maple forests of the county yield
annually about a quarter of a million pounds of maple
sugar. Wild honey is abundant. The Baltimore and Ohio,
West Virginia Central, and Oakland and State Line are
Garrett railroads. The lumber industry in Garrett has
long been its chief manufacturing interest. The first
saw mill, forerunner of the many that have leveled the
primeval forests of the county, was owned by Philip
Hare, and placed in operation near Grantsville about
1790. Valuable and productive farms have been made of
the fertile limestone lands. Oakland* is 246 miles from
Baltimore and 600 from Chicago. Selbysport, Swanton,
Accident, Grantsville, Friendship, Keyser, Mineral
Springs, Krug, Thayersville, Finzel, are among the
Garrett towns, and it is notable in physical geography
as the only Maryland County having rivers flowing
westward as well as eastward. The Youghiogheny rises in
Garrett and is a tributary of the Ohio.
Online Here or Other Sites
Maryland
AHGP
Source: History of Maryland, by
L. Magruder Passano, Wm. J.C. Dulany Company, 1901.
|
